Virginia Brewery Boom Drives Demand For Local Barley

Farmers are working together to provide their crop to several new breweries and construct a new grain terminal to make distribution easier. WCYB's Olivia Bailey reports.

(NBC News) — New breweries, cideries, and distilleries are springing up all over southwest Virginia, creating a booming new industry, and there’s a project to make the entire brewing process more local.

Lee County farmers were some of the first to begin growing barley in southwest Virginia this summer.

“We harvested over 1,300 bushels. We malted over 17,600 pounds of barley and delivered that barley to 18 breweries all around Virginia,” says Will Payne of Appalachian Grains, LLC.

Among those who received the grain are breweries like Wolf Hills in Abingdon, Sugar Hill Brewing Company in St. Paul, startup 36 Fifty Brewing Marion, and Devil’s Backbone in Lexington, which is a Budweiser brand.

“Brewing, in particular, is a very collaborative industry,” Wolf Hills owner Cameron Bell said.

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